Writing Christmas Cards

Advent Calendar / 14 December

Help. I’ve got so caught up this year in blogging about Swedish Christmas traditions that I’m getting behind with my own!

I got my few overseas Christmas cards sent off on time last week, but then yesterday I “suddenly” realized that I only had a couple of days left before I also need to post all the European and Swedish ones, which I hadn’t even got started on…

This year I ended up with a mix of cards; ordering about half of them printed from one of my own photos, making a few myself at home (but not as many as I over-optimistically thought I would), using some bought earlier in the autumn at a market, and having to buy some more from the bookshop. There is of course nothing really wrong with that - except that in my case it means too many last minute decisions! (who shall get which card etc)

As Paul Simon says in one of his songs on the album Hearts and Bones: “Maybe I think too much”. (Only in my case there is probably no maybe about it.)

Note to self: Next year, just order enough copies of the same card for everyone!!!

Oh well, I’m almost done now; I’ll put the stamps on tomorrow.

The two cards I chose for you in this blog post were painted by Swedish artist Jenny Nyström (1854-1946). She became famous as the person who created the Swedish image of the jultomte on numerous Christmas cards and magazine covers, linking “Santa Claus” to the gnomes of Scandinavian folklore. Some of her classic cards are still reprinted and sent around every Christmas.

These two hardly belong to the most commonly seen, though. Both are old ones in a small size which I’m not sure is even allowed to send in the post any more. I have a whole bunch of these small old unwritten cards, all different (and most of them by less well known  or even anonymous artists). I’ve had them for more than 30 years, and they seemed old to me even then. They belonged to either my grandmother or her sister.

Quotation of the Week (50/2010) + Lucia (2)

Advent Calendar / 13 December - LUCIA

“A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.”
~ James Keller ~

I did not get to see our town’s Lucia this weekend; but below is another St Lucia video for you, which was made for Swedish television in Mora in 2007, at the home/museum of famous Swedish painter Anders Zorn (1860-1920). This video includes Lucia and her maidens arriving by sleigh ride. You will also get glimpses from the kitchen, and get to see the Lucia carrying a coffee tray with the traditional buns and gingerbread cookies (see yesterday’s post).

Lucia Celebrations (Part I)

Advent Calendar / 12 December

Tomorrow on 13 December we celebrate St Lucia, or St Lucy’s Day in Sweden (and in the other Scandinavian countries as well). It’s not an official holiday, but a very popular occasion in Sweden, celebrated everywhere: at home, publically in the town, in schools, work-places and churches.

This year, as 13 December falls on a Monday, some of the official celebrations are likely to take place on the weekend instead.

But Lucia is also traditionally an early morning event so no doubt there will be Lucia celebrations on Monday morning too.

Photo from Wikipedia

The girl or woman appointed “Lucia” wears a white gown with a red sash and a crown of candles on her head. She walks at the head of a procession of other girls/women (her “maids”) wearing similar white gowns and carrying candles. There may also be boys in the procession, dressed up as “star boys” or (especially with younger children) sometimes in other Christmas-inspired costumes. As Lucia is associated with the Christian martyr St Lucy (283-304), the star boys are associated with St Stephen (the first Christian martyr). While entering the room, they sing a Lucia song describing the light with which Lucia overcomes the darkness.They then go on to singing more Lucia and Christmas carols and songs.

Older Swedish traditions may have gone before, but the current Lucia tradition of a white-dressed woman with candles in her hair appearing on the morning of the Lucia day is said to have started in the area around Lake Vänern in the late 18th century and spread slowly to other parts of the country during the 19th century.

When the celebration takes place in private homes, Lucia traditionally brings Lucia buns, ginger biscuits and coffee.

 
Photos from Wikipedia

Some people prefer the Lucia buns made with saffron, some without. (I like them with saffron, although that was not the tradition in my home when I grew up.) The ginger biscuits come in all kinds of shapes, and lots of varieties in the ingredients too.

The modern tradition of having public Lucia processions in the Swedish cities started in 1927 when a newspaper in Stockholm elected an official Lucia for Stockholm. This spread throughout the country and every town now usually have their own. A national celebration is also broadcasted each year by Swedish television.

Below you can watch the beginning of such a Lucia celebration from Växjö Cathedral in 2009. (Växjö is in South-East Sweden).

Sweet Christmas

Advent Calendar / 11 December

I forgot one  kind of pig in my Christmas Pig post the other day:

The  Marzipan Pig. Real Marzipan is made of sugar and almond meal; there are also cheaper varieties where peach or apricot kernels are used instead of almonds.

 

Here are some other typical kinds of Christmas sweets that many people in Sweden often still make their own at home for Christmas:

 

Knäck
This is a kind of toffee, made from
cream, sugar, syrup, butter and chopped almonds.
(Warning: Do not eat if you already have tooth problems!)

 

Ischoklad (ice chocolate)
50/50 chocolate + coconut fat

 

Mint kisses
Icing sugar, vinegar and peppermint oil,
with dark chocolate on top
(taste reminding of After Eights)

 

My Mum used to make ice chocolate, and another kind of toffee. We also made marzipan figures back in my childhood. I used to make the mint kisses sometimes, but I think that was not until after I moved away from home.

I don’t make any of these now; partly because if I do make them, I most likely also end up eating them! Some things I just have a very hard time resisting if I know I have them in the house…

None of the pictures in this blog post are my own,
the were all found by Google Search or Wikipedia.

Ten Minutes From Home

Advent Calendar / 10 December

… and also my post for: Friday My Town Shoot Out

“The theme for December 10th is a little different than what we are used to. 10 Minutes from Home. You can travel any way you would like, just let us know how you ended up 10 minutes from home. Walking, bike, drive a car, maybe ride a horse! --- After you get 10 minutes from home, show us what is there. So, in a way, this is a mystery for all of us!”

 

Unfortunately, 10 minutes walk in winter snow does not bring me quite as far as 10 minutes walk in the summer usually does. In the summer, I think 10 minutes would be enough to get me all the way into the little park beyond the white house on the left – the park I call my Butterfly Park.

This week (7 December) this was as far as I got in that direction in 10 minutes. Looking around, my eyes also fell on this snowy bike:

I’m  sure it must be the same bike took a photo of last winter?! (More accurately: less than ten months ago.)

 

Has there really been a summer in between?
Or was that just a dream…?

The Christmas Pig

Advent Calendar / 9 December

The other day Ginny in her blog Let Your Light Shine had pictures of various strange Christmas decorations she had seen around where she lives; among them two pigs. I commented that the pigs were the least strange to me among those examples that she showed; and I promised to make a blog post including pictures.

Now after yesterday’s Advent Calendar post about the Christmas Bunny some people might think this is all a joke too; but today I’m actually into more serious research!

Pigs are quite common in Swedish Christmas traditions. As decorations they might be getting less common than they used to be, but unless you're a vegetarian, the Christmas ham is still the main course on the Christmas table. In the old days, and I think perhaps still in some restaurants, they used to decorate the pig's head with frosting, put an apple in its mouth, and have that on the table as well:

God Jul = Merry Christmas

One of the common pastry-cutters used for homemade Christmas gingerbread cookies is shaped like a pig:

There are also candle holders shaped like pigs:

           

 

and Christmas decorations with "tomtar"/gnomes riding pigs
(common on old Christmas cards I think):

No doubt the pig in the Christmas decorations goes back to pre-Christian Midwinter celebrations here in Scandinavia.

There was a boar Saerimnir in the Old Norse religion, which had sort of "eternal life". It was killed and eaten every night in Valhalla, the hall of dead warriors, where the god Odin reigned; but it was brought back to life again every morning.

The Christmas ham and the decorated pig’s head traditions can be traced back to sacrifices to the god Freyr for the new year.

The Christian faith is recorded to have been first introduced in Sweden by St Ansgar who founded the first congregation in Birka (near our capital Stockholm) in 829. (Links to Wikipedia.)

Sacrifices to the Old Norse gods were abolished as Christianity took over; but of course people still had to eat, and pigs were still slaughtered in time for Midwinter/Yuletide/Christmas...

Old and new traditions got mixed up in one another, as they so often do; until most people no longer know what’s what.

And so in Sweden we ended up with a strange mix of Baby Jesus in the manger, Christmas trees, candles, snow, pigs, Christmas gifts, the small gnome/brownie-like “tomte” and the Yule Buck mixed with the big jovial St Claus/Father Christmas and his reindeer... (And on top of that  since 1960 every family glued to the TV screen every Christmas Eve between 3-4 pm to watch Disney cartoons  – the link goes to an old blog post from last year.)

Oh, by the way… I mentioned in an earlier post that we also have a Christmas Calendar TV-show (a new one every year) running from 1-24 December. Guess who the “star” of this year’s Calendar is?

It’s a little pig!

None of the pictures in this post are my own;
they were all found by Google picture search.

The Christmas Bunny

Advent Calendar / 8 December

What? You never heard of the Christmas Bunny? Well, to me it makes as much sense  as an Easter Bunny bringing Easter eggs!

Actually, the bunny sculpture stands in our town park all-year-round, but the snow gives him an extra interesting face expression. The Winter Wonderland surrounding him also enhances the associations with Alice in Wonderland (which inspired the artist).*

Here is proof that the Christmas Hare actually exists:

I saw him through my window one night last week. He was digging through the snow to get at the grass underneath, poor thing.

Then another one popped up in the gadget at the bottom of my blog page. Apparently there were Christmas Bunnies as early as back in the 16th century:

Snowy footnotes:
* The name of the the sculpture in the first picture is Mate Hunting,
and the artist Marianne Lindberg De Geer (born 1946).
*  Thankyou to Picnik (now accessible directly from Picasa) for the Christmassy frames and the Santa hat.
* Apologies to Albrecht Dürer (1421-1528) and Random Classic Art.